Week Three

Sorry in advance for the long email. This week was crazy!

It was all going pretty normal until Thursday when Elder O’Bryant passed out during study due to a medication he is on. That threw us into a round of meetings and by Friday the doctors decided to send Elder O’Bryant home. So, Saturday morning I had to say goodbye to my first companion. It’s been hard to see him go. He taught me so much about faith, humility and trusting in the Lord’s plan. I have been truly blessed to have had him as a companion for the first 15 days of my mission. 

So after that quite a few more notable events occurred 

First of all, I'm now part of a tri-panionship with the two other elders in my room, Elder Brady and Elder Burton. It’s been a pretty smooth transition so far thanks to the fact that all four of us in that room became close friends really quickly the first two weeks. 

Second, Elder Uchtdorf and his wife visited our classroom on Saturday to visit a member of our district who is something of an adopted grandchild of the Uchtdorf’s. It was a huge surprise to everyone and the whole district had a hard time focusing on mandarin after that. 

Third, all the Taipei bound missionaries got to meet our new Mission President, President Peterson. There are a ton of missionaries going to Taipei and so I only got to talk to him personally for a tiny bit but he did know where Westchester, New York which was pretty cool! He seems like a really great guy and got us all super excited to get to Taiwan. He served in the Taichung mission but actually spent most of his mission in areas that are now in the Taipei mission. He also has some old mission friends who have dropped everything to go back to Taiwan with him as senior missionaries, along with his parents (who are both in there 80's and never got to serve missions) who are learning Chinese to come out as well!

Fourth, on Sunday we had a devotional for all the mission presidents where the whole Quorum of the Twelve attended. My zone’s service job is to convert the gym to the auditorium for the Sunday devotional and the reverse after the Tuesday night devotional. But since this Sunday’s devotional was so big we had to set up a lot more chairs than normal. Also the gym was being used for a dinner right before hand and so we had to take all that stuff down first. All In all it took about 3 hours to set everything up. Just in time to have the one hour MTC choir practice where around 800 missionaries learned “Jesus Once of Humble Birth,” to sing that night for the whole quorum of the twelve. The choir director commented how only at the MTC could a choir that big learn a song in such a short amout of time. Truly the Lord helps his missionaries! Elder Quentin L. Cook was the speaker that night and gave an awesome message about the 4 loves of missionary work. Love for ones companion, love for the people you serve, love for your mission president, and love for the Lord. He shared a lot of awesome stories about his own mission (where he was companions with Elder Holland for a time) and really inspired us all to be the best missionaries possible. 

Finally on Sunday my new companions and I got called as the new Zone Leaders as the old ones left today, they were awesome examples of loving leaders and we always knew they cared about us younger guys even though they got here 6 weeks before us. All three of us are aspiring to be equally as good for the 14 new Elders coming in this Wednesday. 

It certainly has been a week of change. A lot of great people left the Zone these last couple days and they will be sorely missed. But they are all off to bigger and better things. I’ve also been blessed to have a lot of experiences with Apostles this week and I can testify of the powerful spirit that surrounds them. Everything from the non stop smiles from my district after Elder Uchtdorf visited, to the powerful moment when the whole Quorum of the Twelve and their wives walked into the devotional meeting as we were all singing the prelude song “Choose the Right.” I think everyone’s testimony of the Apostle’s special witness of Christ was strengthened in that moment.

It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster this week but it has been one to remember that’s for sure.

Love,

Elder Neilson 

倪長老

My new companions and I at the temple this morning.

District picture we took with Elder O’Bryant on his last night

Elder Uchtdorf, his wife, and my district.

One of the final pictures of my zone before the older generations left.